Before the new private management took office, there used to be a winner in Lotto (of Illinois Lottery) at least once a month. It used to be fun knowing there would be a new millionare every month or two.

The games became more erratic with the new management. It is almost 5 months now, since the last winner in Lotto. I think the last winner was some time back in November 2013. The Lotterty seems more intent on meeting its revenue quota set by the state than actually paying out to those that play.

Then they have all these new permutations and combinations to literally every game on board.......all designed to suck up your wagers.

I quit playing when the Lotto Jackpot was 13 million about two month ago, and there was still no winner. Looks like the odds of winning anything in the Illinois Lottery are greater than both PowerBall and Megaball combined.

I play the Luck Day once in a while as I wean myself out of the Illinois games.

Before the new private management took office, there used to be a winner in Lotto (of Illinois Lottery) at least once a month. It used to be fun knowing there would be a new millionare every month or two.

The games became more erratic with the new management. It is almost 5 months now, since the last winner in Lotto. I think the last winner was some time back in November 2013. The Lotterty seems more intent on meeting its revenue quota set by the state than actually paying out to those that play.

Then they have all these new permutations and combinations to literally every game on board.......all designed to suck up your wagers.

I quit playing when the Lotto Jackpot was 13 million about two month ago, and there was still no winner. Looks like the odds of winning anything in the Illinois Lottery are greater than both PowerBall and Megaball combined.

I play the Luck Day once in a while as I wean myself out of the Illinois games.

Its very possible that there are legions of lottery player's in your State that share your concerns hurley1333.

I'm not a big fan of privatization. The private corporation not only has to pay fed and state taxes but has to transfer a certain amount of money to the state to fund whatever the state used to fund with lottery profits. Then you have to consider that the private company has to earn profits for its stock holders. All this money is coming from the players. This means the profits have to be sky high and the payouts have to be very very low. Not good!

I'm not a big fan of privatization. The private corporation not only has to pay fed and state taxes but has to transfer a certain amount of money to the state to fund whatever the state used to fund with lottery profits. Then you have to consider that the private company has to earn profits for its stock holders. All this money is coming from the players. This means the profits have to be sky high and the payouts have to be very very low. Not good!

100% The private co's all promise the lottery officials they will increase profits. If they offer games that make it more difficult to win you got your higher profits. But then the players start to realize nobody wins anymore, and the sales go way down. Then the lottery officials start to panic and come up with some crazy promotion, but they still don't improve the odds which is the only real way to improve profits, because then more people will play... Idiots.

"You can observe a lot just by watching." Yogi Berra, Hall of Fame baseball player.

The numbers will tell you what numbers to play. Pay attention to the numbers.

100% The private co's all promise the lottery officials they will increase profits. If they offer games that make it more difficult to win you got your higher profits. But then the players start to realize nobody wins anymore, and the sales go way down. Then the lottery officials start to panic and come up with some crazy promotion, but they still don't improve the odds which is the only real way to improve profits, because then more people will play... Idiots.

I play very little nowadays. I use the LP predictions board and learn how much money I save by not playing as much as I used to

After Northstar had been running the Illinois lottery for a year someone here on LP posted that they were about $20 million short od their promise to the state for lottery revenue.

They've added some games like Hit Or Miss, a "thank you for paying" game, i.e. "Thanks for the donation." The game itself is a copy cat of some other states but Northstar is a little decptive in their payoff charts. The most common result on Hit Or Miss is 5, 6, or 7 of your numbers, but that's not listed on the back of the ticket. The chart on the back of the ticket makes it look like everything wins.

Adding Fireball to Pick 3 and 4 is another way to squeeze an extra dollar out of the player. It only pays if the Fireball gives you a straight hit. At first there was also a blue ball that was "No Fireball" but I guess they got enough complaints that they dropped that.

HELLO NORTHSTAR - keep on reading

With Lucky Day Lotto and Lotto they didn't change the matrix for those games but for Lucky Day they added EZ match - the odds of winning the top prize for that, $500 (Whoopie) are 210,000 to one. Gee, the jp odds are 575,757 to one. Thropw the extra buck at another set of numbers for the jp.

The Lotto odds haven't changed either but the progression is a slow $250,000 at a time and the gimmick here for the extra buck is the Extra Shot. Sweet if you hit 4 of 6 or more but it's strictly a QP and a shot in the dark. I called the 800 number and asked someone how many Extra Shot balls there were and at first they didn't know, they had to ask around before they told me there's 25.

As for scratchers they've added a lot more numbers to the match a nunmber games. Before they took over on tickets like a "Lucky 7" all the losing numbers were single digits. Now they go into the teens and twenties.

One thing though on Iowa hurley, they still use Illinois' Pick 3 and Pick 4.

Those who run the lotteries love it when players look for consistency in something that's designed not to have any.

There is one and only one 'proven' system, and that is to book the action. No matter the game, let the players pick their own losers.